perks of my "job"

i really love working with small local shops. most of the shops i sell in are close enough that i can deliver their orders directly to them. the other day jude and i took a little trip about 20 minutes up the road to rockport, ma. it is beautiful...especially in the summer. 

we enjoyed a chocolate filled croissant, one of my favorites.

starting to add this new little stamp on the backs my earrings + accessories. 

happy weekend! cheers to the heat wave almost breaking...but not yet today! we're looking at a heat index of 110! 

my love language: flea markets + yard sales

Our house is coming together and still feels like a major work in progress at the same time. Here is Jude prior to leaving for the Adirondacks in early June. Our deck was basically a basketball court. A very dingy basketball court for a very sweet little basketball player. I bought the hoop at a yard sale for $5.

Philip power-washed the deck once we got back from camp in July. And it looks so much better. And yard sale purchase for the win again...

Can you believe got this at a yard sale? Pier One, purchased the year prior and let's just say we saved about $1,000. God frequently takes care of us through yard sales. It is sort of silly, but I do find that to be true by the way we find the exact thing we were hoping for that we could never afford at full price. 

We have been also looking for newel posts at flea markets. Newel posts...those bannister things if you are not familiar. So far we have no quite found what we are looking for. And our stairs unfortunately still have unfinished steps (no hardwood) and one of those awesome half dry walls. 

Our flea market of choice is this happy place called Todd Farm Flea Market in Rowley, MA. It opens at I want to say 5am, but I have never made it out there before 6:30am and by then it is packed with vendors and people. It is my mothership. We usually grab some iced dunkin donuts or this week we stopped at Marty's a local delicious donut place in Ipswich. 

We stroll Jude man around and look for treasures. Hold me back because seriously, I could buy so much. 

Here are a few of my treasures from this week: 

And this is as far as we have gotten with them: 

(spray painted the B grey - scored the B for $10)

The little wooden box is being used for incoming mail and sunglasses, just counter storage in our kitchen. 

And the antlers I will do something fun with. So far they are gold tipped. I found a really cool oval shaped frame that I considered buying and mounting the antlers in the middle. One of the men working a booth asked if I were going to do some sort of voodoo worship and I said no....

Other finds recently from Todd Farm...

We also found this fireplace there (taken from a Harvard apartment) & painted it white. Philip thinks it should be painted a different color...thoughts? 

And this little table from a house in Cape Cod. Philip thought the seller said he got it from a cape as in the style house, but I am pretty sure no one would feel the need to tell you that got a table from a certain style house. (e.g. I got this table from a colonial...not necessary information)

There are all kinds of people at the flea market. There are some booths that are pure junk. And there are some that are the best kind of old stuff. There are also ladies that know how to style their booths and mark up the prices, but I am generally not looking for that type of thing. 

I have to laugh too because every time I have gone I see these girls - probably in their twenties - who get all dressed up hipster, dressy and march around like they own the place. Sometimes they have a little dog as an accessory. I feel like they think they are on some sort of vintage, repurposing home show. But I have never seen a camera crew with them. Philip doesn't understand why I think its funny, but its probably because I secretly wish I was them and had my own tv show too. 

Todd Farm closes in I want to say October so I have got to get my fix before the season closes. Its seriously tempting to me to go every week until then, but we'll see. 

So I am blogging about my house today...who knows what I will blog about next? 

short update + featured: time out new york

first of all - happy 4th! this is one of my first fourth of july's not at a young life camp since philip and i have been married...so it is somewhat hard to figure out how to do this thing. at camp the schedule just moves on like normal, with no fireworks usually. however, i don't think fireworks are in our future this year because they start about 2 hours after jude's bedtime and seeing that he has been getting up at 5am since getting back from camp, we are not going to keep him up two additional hours to see if he like fireworks or is startled by them.

i should share some about camp, but i am not going to right now. it was fun, and exhausting. much of the time i felt like a single mom because philip's schedule is so demanding. that sounds dramatic. i really don't know how single mom's do it though. i'll try to share some about camp sooner or later. we did get a family kayak ride around girl scout island , which is for sale if you have 3 million to spare.

also just wanted to pop in to share that my seersucker earrings have been featured in timeout new york magazine...

i do love seersucker - and bring back the seersucker fabric every summer because it is classic.

enjoy your fourth!

katie

back from the beach + hair ties on sale!

 alrighty. back from north carolina and virginia. it was a great packed 10 days and we are gearing up for saranac (our month in the adirondacks).

here's a quick snapshot of us at the wedding we got to be in. jude was the ring bearer (pictured below), philip officiated and i was a bridesmaid. the wedding was the one of our dear friends.

jude did not really fulfill his duties as ring bearer. he got fussy right before i walked down the aisle and i had to carry him. then he exited the ceremony shortly after with our friends who watched him.

but for now, hair ties are on sale at buffalo brickyard...so pop on over for a deal on them!

massachusetts house update. living room!

so much has happened with our house progress, but have not really taken the time to update you all besides on instagram. things are really coming together. yes - there are some serious gaping holes in the whole look of the house. not literally, but you know, design holes. incomplete projects. we still do not have porch furniture...our yard is cleaner, but still a mess....we do not have a headboard...lots of walls are still bare, but let me tell you, this place is shaping up. i am really liking the way it looks so i am going to try to give a few room tours in the next few weeks.

so here is the living room...

this is the view from the entryway. so many thrifted, craiglist, flea market finds...just the way i like it! some details below

mantel found at a flea market (from a harvard apartment circa 1800s) which will be white soon!

bench - my parent's old bench - painted martha stewart sea glass

basket at the door...needs to be moved, but found in ipswich on the side of the road

rug...ikea

wait, refresher...

one of the big changes we wanted to make was to cover that pointless bookshelf over the fireplace...so we did and moved the tv over. then in the funny little nook to the right of the fireplace, philip built a cabinet and shelves. right now the shelves are just sort of filled with random things - hope to do something a little more functional, yet stylized in the future. 

the chair was one i found on the side of the road and recovered myself. 

love this little table we got last week at todd farm flea market. 

which matches my quilt from my g-ma, which are throughout the house. 

(apparently my grandfather liked to collect quilts, which i think it brilliant and i am enjoying parts of his collection)

we love restoration hardware couch that we got on craiglist for $20 - insert happy dance! 

we still have a few things to do...

not sure what to do about the plaid chair...hopefully recover it - not myself - with something that matches the room. 

peace out girl scouts! more tours to come. 

hope.

one of my favorite blogs mentioned this quote by mr. rogers, as well. i liked the whole video verses the quote i mentioned in my previous post.

"...because if you look for the helpers, you'll know that there's hope." 

thankful for his wise + true words. 

perhaps i'll be back sooner or later with a post. 

k

boston.

i had started to draft this post on sunday. obviously, everyone now knows the marathon was on monday. it was patriots day, our first patriots day here. did not know that was a holiday until recently. the town we live in started hanging flags over the weekend and philip initially thought it was in preparation for memorial day. saturday we had a trip planned into the city to see Philip's family who had come in town to watch a cousin run. we took the T in and had a great day. Jude really does pretty well in the city - happy to sit in his stroller and look around. 

we got off the T here. which is still a wow for me. this was the site of the boston massacre. and i am starting to know my way around, which makes us feel like locals even though we have been here less than a year. 

we went to lunch at the union oyster house - the oldest restaurant in the country still in operation...pretty crazy. they have a booth called the kennedy booth because JFK loved to eat in privacy in this booth. 

we walked around the city for a few hours - stopping by bunker hill to let Jude run around some. (side note, looks like the washington monument - have heard it was built first here, not sure though)

there was an excitement in the city preparing for the race. yellow and blue jackets symbolizing you were running scattered through the crowds. i love watching races. i even sort of love running races. i ran cross country and track in high school and ran a marathon at the end of college. now whenever i watch races, it makes me want to start running again. don't hold me to that though. 

we have some friends in the city and we had a friend coming to run. we had considered coming back in town and on monday to see them, but then our judgement as tired parents was - i don't think judah will like sitting there watching...it will be crazy on the T...

so we did not go. and we are so grateful. i know that the likelihood of us being anywhere near the bombings would have been so slim, but we would have taken the train and the chaos and fear that people endured while in the city the on monday sounds terrifying. 

so today, i am grateful. grateful that God spared us of that. thankful that while this was all happening my sweet boy was napping at home in his crib. and sad for others that were not spared this tragedy. sad that this begets fear. and that i will be slower to spontaneously take a trip into the city because of the uncertainty of what went on and the unknown of why. and we want to know why, but does it really help? there is no good reason for this. 

we live in a fallen, broken world. but there is hope. hatred does not win. i love this quote by mr. rogers that you have probably seen circulating... “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

and more than that, i believe there is a God of peace that desires justice in this and his heart is even more broken over this tragedy than we are. and that he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. (psalm 147:3).